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Hammers All You Need to Know

March 14, 2009

Your offensive hammer is the most important long-term aspect of development.

There are two viable strategies for the long-term development of a hammer. One develops a hammer in your 15-cropper capital, one develops a hammer in an adjacent village that uses the 15-cropper for storage. Below is a brief overview of some of the more important distinctions between the strategies.

STRATEGY 1

15-cropper: This is the simpler of the two strategies and if you have never played a full round of Travian, this is probably the strategy you should stick with.

The strategy: The 15-cropper strategy is simple. Your 15-cropper capital will contain only the essentials for maintaining an army: a barracks, a stable, a siege workshop, a flour mill, a bakery, a hero’s mansion, a marketplace, (a stonemason if you desire, but this is not essential) and a tournament square. Buildings like the palace, academy, and blacksmith will be constructed, but will be demolished once research is finished and villages conquered (this will later allow you to build a palace in a non-capital village and produce 3 chiefs, should you so choose). All other buildings will be granaries and warehouses to afford the higher-level wheat fields. Your 15-cropper will be both your hub of production and of offensive activity. You should not produce defensive troops from your cropper, but rather reinforce it from specialized defensive villages as necessary.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

Advantages: The 15-cropper strategy is very easy easy to maintain early on; however, a 15-crop capital hammer can be difficult later in the game. for example, on another server i have an army that eats over 200k crop/hour and my capital produces 90k crop/hour. -100k+ crop/hour isn’t an easy thing to manage. it is easier than a non-capital hammer but still not easy.

You are also less vulnerable with the 15-cropper strategy. As your capital cannot be conquered, you are simultaneously protecting both your production hub and your offensive hub in the same, immune village.

Disadvantages: It will be more difficult get your production as high under the 15-cropper strategy as you could using an adjacent hammer village. The “unnecessary buildings,” such as the barracks, stable, and tournament square limit the amount of building space and may prevent you from being able to build the highest-level fields. It is doable, but can be difficult.

Because you cannot use the great barracks/great stable, your speed of military construction is limited under this strategy. To offset this disadvantage, you must keep troops queued constantly, which will not be a problem at later stages of the game.

STRATEGY 2

Adjacent Village: the adjacent village strategy utilizes a more sophisticated concept, but is much more difficult to sustain over the long-term.

The strategy: The purpose of this strategy is to maximize your long-term production and the speed at which you can construct an army by using a secondary village as close to your 15-cropper capital as possible as your hammer. All offensive units will be produced in the adjacent village, which can be a 6-cropper, a 9-cropper, or another 15-cropper. This village will focus only on offensive development, containing a barracks, great barracks, stable, great stable, siege workshop, tournament square, blacksmith, and other buildings of your choice. Your 15-cropper capital will contain only the bare essentials for production: marketplace, flour mill, bakery, and hero’s mansion. The rest of the slots will be used for enough warehouses and granaries to afford the highest level of wheat fields, maximizing your possible production. The hammer village will use the 15-cropper as storage for the offensive troops while they are not engaged in combat, then will recall them and send them out as necessary.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

Advantages: effective use of this strategy will increase both your long-term production and the speed at which you can construct and reconstruct your offensive hammer.

Disadvantages: despite the great potential for success with this strategy, there are several important disadvantages. For one, when you recall your forces and send them out, you create an enormous negative wheat situation in your hammer village. This will require constant attention every time you launch your forces to keep your troops from starving. At later levels of the game, when the average attack is probably 10+ hours distance away, this can become extremely cumbersome and difficult to maintain.

As such, this strategy requires a far greater time investment than the 15-cropper strategy. Remember, a Travian round lasts a little more than a year, and a strategy like this can really hinder your enjoyment of the game in the long-term.

You are also more vulnerable under this strategy. Since your hammer village is not your capital, it is conquerable and cannot build a stonemason, so it is far easier to destroy by catapulting. If your hammer were to be conquered, all of the offensive troops it hosted would die immediately — a very risky situation.

Many players will never realize the full advantages of such a strategy. If you are not extremely dedicated, willing to use gold, and knowledgable about how to build and maintain your villages, you might be doing a great deal of extra work without getting a significant long-term payoff.

Overview: Both of the above strategies are viable long-term approaches toward creating a useful hammer. I only recommend the adjacent village strategy to players who truly know what they are doing and understand the additional commitment to the game this strategy will require. There is no reason why a player using the 15-cropper strategy cannot produce a powerful hammer.

The decision comes down to what type of player you intend to be, how comfortable you are with the long-term requirements of the strategies, and your commitment level to the game. All members should choose one of the strategies outlined above when developing their major offensive hammers. The earlier you choose and begin to develop your long-term hammer, the more powerful you will be come endgame.

HAMMER KILLING. ( credits to nailzz)

The first way to find hammers is by watching. I watch my alliance attack boards… especially during a war and I look and see who has what or who MIGHT have what. I also look at my enemies villages and how they’re set up. It’s important that I kill everything in the village I attack because I really don’t want to his zero and reveal the size (or potential size) of my hammer. Sometimes, depending on the situation I may not attack at full hammer strength.

For instance: If my potential target is a Teuton, I’ll look for a cropper of course but one that has two or more villages surrounding it. I know this is most likely a hammer den (less likely an anvil if it’s Teuton). I’ll then watch for a day or two checking the attack logs of allies around that area to see when he attacks and I’ll try to establish a timeframe for when they’re most likely online. Once I have a pretty good idea and I’ve spoken to my allies in the area to see what he’s attacking with, I scout – but I scout heavy. A couple thousand scouts at least when I’m about 95% sure it’s worth it. Then as soon as the report comes back, I launch because I’ve already calculated my hammer’s drop time for when the enemy is probably away. Once I launch I make sure my production is ramped up because I expect heavy losses. I also have a designated village where I can quickly set my hero to resurrect. Somewhere that I’ve set up adequate storage space to house the resources necessary to revive him.

That’s one scenario, there are others. It involves about a day or two to set the whole thing up and coordinate communications with allies “on the ground”. Your alliance forum is another place to get good tips on where the enemy hammers are too. I also let my mates know that I’m on a hunt. They’re always ready to have someone else risk their hammer before their own.

But 30-40 hours is too far to do it alone. Even with help it’s just a suicide mission. You’d have to have a concerted effort and coordination and at that point your looking at busting an anvil (and subsequently crop killing a cropper AND losing your hammer completely) because the hammer will be moved and the imported reins will remain.

I just thought I would write up a few of my notes here, hope they help.

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I would add that using Strategy 2 should really only be done once you have played a FULL server, be that speed or regular, since knowing what buildings and upgrades to do in each city stretches far beyond your 15c. You could wind up with all the buildings set up, but with a production problem with one of your resources.

You could always fix the problem by golding up a village in one day…but bringing a village up to 500 population with 10 resource fields’ production in one day almost kills the point of playing the game. Or does it?